Impaired arpeggio movement in skilled reaching by rubrospinal tract lesions in the rat: a behavioral/anatomical fractionation.

Spinal cord injury damaging the rubrospinal tract (RST) interferes with skilled forelimb movement, but identification of the precise role of the RST in this behavior is impeded by the difficulty of surgically isolating the RST from other pathways running within the lateral funiculus (LF). The present study used a skilled reaching task and a behavioral/anatomical dissection method to identify the contribution of the RST to skilled forelimb movement. Rats were trained on the skilled reaching task and subjected to lesions of the LF.